Ashes (Dark in You 3)

“We haven’t met before,” she told Harper. “I’m Linda. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face, Miss Wallis.”

Harper gave her a quick smile. “It’s good to meet both of you. Call me Harper – the Miss Wallis stuff makes me feel awkward.”

Rather than leading them further into the house, Wyatt lowered his voice as he spoke. “The clean-up crew you sent to the hospital to destroy the boy’s hospital record and blood samples were almost done when I left.”

Knox nodded his approval. “How is he?”

Wyatt jiggled his head from side to side, but his tousled peanut-brown hair didn’t move, thanks to whatever gel he was using. “He seems all right, which I didn’t expect. His mother didn’t just try to burn him in the oven, she tried to burn the house down – as if to be sure he died. McCauley told the police that he managed to get out of the oven before she switched it on and then he scrambled out of the house. Since he has no burns, they believe him.” Demons were impervious to normal fire, so the oven would have done him absolutely no harm. “Danielle Riley” – another demon from their lair – “was his appointed social worker; she’s going to log in her file that he was placed with relatives and make it all look official.”

“Who do you think his biological parents are?” Linda asked Knox, folding her arms.

“I’m not sure yet,” replied Knox. “But I’ll find them.”

“He’s welcome to stay here until then,” Linda offered, sounding overly casual. “I mean, if that’s okay with you?”

“If you’d like to take care of him temporarily, that’s fine,” said Knox. Linda’s relief was clear to see on her face. Wyatt didn’t look so delighted, Knox noticed. “Where is he?”

“The living room,” said Linda.

“Lead us to him.”

With a nod, Wyatt headed down the thin hallway and into a homey room with apricot walls, a lush beige carpet, and a cream leather sofa. In front of the large T.V. sat a little dark-haired boy, eyes locked on the cartoon that was playing.

“McCauley,” said Wyatt, “these are the friends I was telling you about.”

The boy turned to look at them, his face surprisingly blank. Being part of a large family, Harper was used to being around kids. Used to their nervous energy, their tendency to hop from one thing to another, and their boundless curiosity. But this boy’s big brown eyes held no curiosity. No interest, no wariness, no happiness, nothing. And something about that raised her hackles.

Given what Knox had told her about changelings, Harper had expected him to be so low down on the power spectrum that he could pass for human. No demon would ever mistake this boy for human – he was by no means weak.

Knox spoke first. “Hello, McCauley. I’m Knox. This is Harper.”

The boy’s eyes bled to black as his demon surfaced, making its presence known and sizing them up. It retreated after only a few moments.

Knox tilted his head. “It fears me, doesn’t it? The entity inside you. The one that drives you. I have my own, just as Harper, Wyatt, and Linda do.”

McCauley didn’t react.

Harper caught sight of the drawing on the coffee table. It was a standard family drawing, really – two adults, one boy, one girl, and a dog that looked like a golden retriever. But his pen control and attention to detail were impressive. “You’re good. Is that you?”

He nodded.

She pointed to the little girl. “Who’s that?”

He shrugged.

“Your mother has been arrested,” Knox told him.

“Teri wasn’t my mother.” It was said with no emotion whatsoever. It didn’t even seem like he was suppressing emotion. He genuinely didn’t seem affected by the matter, one way or the other.

“No, she wasn’t,” Knox agreed. “Do you know who is?”

The little cambion shook his head. He didn’t look particularly bothered by that either.

“I intend to find the answer to that question. In the meantime, you’ll stay here with Wyatt and Linda. All right?” A nod. “Good.”

“Do you need anything?” Harper asked him.

“No, thank you.” Such a well-mannered phrase, yet there was no real “thanks” there. No gratitude. No anything.

“We’ll see you again soon,” Knox told him.

The kid’s demon rose to the surface again; there was a challenge there this time. Knox’s own demon surfaced and glared down at the boy, intimidating his demon into submission.

When both entities retreated, Knox warned, “Don’t let it borrow trouble, McCauley.” Taking Harper’s hand, Knox led her to the front door. Before opening it, he turned to Wyatt. “You sure you want to keep him here?”

It was Linda who answered. “Positive.”

Knox raised a questioning brow at Wyatt, who gave a simple nod. “All right,” said Knox.

“Was there another child?” Harper asked, remembering the picture he’d drawn.

“The only people who lived in that house were him and the human female who’d raised him,” said Wyatt. “Her husband left and remarried long ago. He has a daughter with his second wife, but he has no contact whatsoever with McCauley.”

Harper thought it likely that McCauley had drawn a picture of himself immersed in that family… or maybe he’d drawn the family he’d wished he had. “Don’t hesitate to call us if you have any problems with him.” The couple smiled, but Wyatt’s smile was weak.

Once they were back in the Bentley, Knox gave Levi a rundown of what had been said.

“I like kids, I really do,” said Harper. “But that kid was creepy. And he’s not low down on the power scale.”

Knox took her hand. “He’s fairly powerful for a cambion.”

“And pretty robotic. There’s nothing, well, child-like about him. No crazy energy, no humming or fidgeting.” There didn’t appear to be any wasted movements with him at all. “He feels… cold.”

Knox toyed with her hair. “Sometimes I think that demons forfeit emotion for power. I’m an example of that.”

Her brows snapped together. “You’re not emotionless.”

“No, but I don’t feel the range of emotions that you do. I’m not capable of many of them.”

“You feel love, right?”

The tiny tremor in her voice made his chest tighten. “Baby, one day you’re going to be utterly secure in the knowledge that you’re a loveable person. I’ll make sure of it.”

“I don’t doubt that you love me.”

Knox knew that was true. Giving her a black diamond had crushed any doubts she might have had, but he suspected that it would take a long time to ease the insecurities that had been born when both parents abandoned her as a baby. Her subconscious didn’t seem ready to heal. “Good. Never doubt it, because it will never change.”

“If you can feel this emotion so strongly, if you believe it isn’t something that will ever fade, then we don’t forfeit emotion for power.”

“That might be a good point, except that I only feel it for you. So maybe it’s just that you’re my miracle.”

She smiled. “I’ve been called a lot of things. Never a miracle. My family would be so disappointed that I’m not living up to my purpose to annoy all those who cross my path.”

Knox’s mouth curved. “Oh, you’re still expertly good at irritating people. I just get a free pass. For the most part, anyway.”

“Very true.” She smiled against his mouth when he kissed her. “Back to what we were talking about before, what do we do about McCauley?”

“I’ll have Keenan find out how many women from our lair were pregnant back then. We’ll find out who she is.”

“Are you sure she’s from this lair?” Demon lairs didn’t claim territories, and their kind sometimes lived in places far from their Prime, so Harper believed it was very possible that the mother belonged to another lair.

“No, but we should look to our own first.”